Grey Matters 2: Poxy's Dilemma
by PureFuronGodliness
Summary: Continues after my first fic, Grey Matters. Silhouette is still alive and Pox is bent on revenge. However, Silhouette wouldn't be Silhouette if she didn't have a few surprises in store for her two favorite Furons.
1. The Nightmare Begins

**Author's Note: While, at the same time, she creeps me out, Silhouette is actually my favorite character from the first game, after Pox and Crypto, of course. I can relate to her in a few ways. This fanfic continues where Grey Matters left off. The hunt for that insane wench is on!**

* * *

_Glass was shattered. He spilled out, flopping to the floor, ending up in a puddle of thick viscous liquid, shards of glass and his own blood. He was hoisted to his feet.  
__A flash of a face with a wicked grin.  
__Silhouette._

Pox awoke with a start. As he lifted his head off his arms, his confused eyes were greeted by the sight of his own familiar computer viewscreens, and his racing heart soon calmed down.  
He'd fallen asleep during his research again… But brains, as short as it may have been, it had sure been a remarkably vivid dream…

"You okay, Pox?" a voice suddenly sounded.

Pox sat up and turned to his left, to see Crypto standing there, holding a mug of coffee. He was dressed casually and had most likely just returned from a little spare time-spending on Earth.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine…" Pox mumbled in response, and proceeded to pointlessly shuffle some papers around his desk.

"You were dreamin', I could tell." Crypto said as he walked around the desk and sat down opposite of his mentor. "That Silhouette chick still gettin' to you…?"

"A little…" Pox admitted with a sigh. "This was different, though… I hadn't been dreaming about what happened, until now."

Crypto sipped his coffee as he watched Pox restlessly go through some notes, checking files on his viewscreens and jotting down new thoughts. As he had done so many times before.  
For before Crypto sat Orthopox-14, having been cloned about a month ago after his last clone had died from the aftermath of Silhouette's hospitality.  
Mere minutes after stepping out of the cloning machine, the newly cloned young Orthopox was back in his research labs, and had begun a frantic search for Silhouette's whereabouts, so he could have his revenge.  
Yet so far, with no result.

Pox was clearly getting highly frustrated at the fact that, no matter what he tried, Silhouette remained elusive. Every attempt at tracking her down had failed.  
Pox let out a growl as he angrily propped his head on his hands.

"Hey." Crypto then began. "How's about we go up to the training dome, leave all this crap for a while and play some PK tennis?"

"I can't go and have mindless fun at a time like this…!" Pox replied. "We should waste no time finding Silhouette! Arkvoodle knows what insidious scheme she might be plotting!"

"Alright, alright…! But you've been sitting here for _days_ now and you still don't have the slightest clue to where she's hidin'…!"

"I will have, eventually…! One slip-up on her behalf is all I need! A month has passed already, eventually she'll get sloppy in covering up her tracks, and then she'll be ours!"

"If you say so." Crypto sighed, poking at the items on Pox's desk in boredom. "Speakin' of time passed, I just realized 1969 is almost over…"

"Hnn." Pox hummed as he wrote a new note for himself, his mind no longer at the conversation.

"I don't want the sixties to end." Crypto continued. "I just know I'll hate the seventies. Somehow I feel I'll be _**disappointed**_…"

Crypto then took another sip of coffee as he absent-mindedly stared at Pox's slender left hand while it glided along the notepad paper.  
Pox sighed as he put his pencil down.

"Which corner of the globe did you choose this time…?" he then asked Crypto, referring to his last recreational visit to Earth. "And stop playing with my slide rule."

"Netherlands." Crypto replied. "Heard a lot about it, but it wasn't that great. The chicks were alright, though."

"I never liked the Dutch. Pompous little country. America may have perfected capitalism, but the Dutch invented it. Next time you go there, just blow that pathetic lump of clay back into the North Sea, would you?"

"Whatever you say, Poxy." Crypto grinned. "By the way, while I was on Earth, I saw this game some American guys made. You play it on a computer and you're basically like, a rocketship in space, and two saucers try to destroy you. It got boring real quick, but it got me thinkin'… Now that the monkeys have finally 'invented' the video game, we should wait and watch its progress for a while. Then, when they finally manage to produce some proper graphics, we'll force some humans in the videogame industry to make a game about _**us**_ and get the monkeys to sell and play it. We'll be famous! We'll develop a cult following and have a slave army of fans to help ease the harvest of brainstems!"

"That's a preposterous idea, Crypto." Pox told him. "It'll never happen. You should leave these world-domination plots to me."

"Aww."

"I'm going to take a shower now." Pox then said. "I need a break. And be sure to leave some coffee for me."


	2. The Flying Furon

A few minutes later, Pox was up in the sleeping quarters, having undressed and standing underneath a nice warm shower.

Life sure had become a little easier now that he was no longer confined to his cerebral chair. The way his previous clone body had died was still a bummer, but it had allowed him to trade his aged 13th clone, with its immobile legs, for a fit new one. Pox now physically looked like he was in his early twenties, however, he was still meek and short. And the fact that he did not yet have genitalia pissed him off like nobody's business. He was definately going to make Silhouette pay for that…

Pox tried to clear his mind and enjoy the soothing warm water, but he didn't seem to be able to really calm down.  
He felt a strange, urging anxiety that just wouldn't go away.

Pox had no idea where it came from. Sure, he was desperate to find Silhouette and angered by the fact he was not able to, but this was different… It had been there since he'd woken up from his dream.  
It just felt like something was very, very wrong. But what?  
Perhaps he was falling ill…

Then, out of nowhere, a crushing pain hit his stomach.  
It made him gasp for air and he stumbled, his bare back meeting the shower wall.

Then, before Pox could recover, it hit again. Like a blow to his abdomen.  
He lost his footing and fell, his head roughly meeting the floor tiles as his vision went black.

* * *

"_Pox…? Pox!"_

Pox knitted his eyebrows together, his head throbbing.  
As he slowly opened his eyes, the bathroom lights stinging his retinas, Crypto hovered over him, staring back at him.

"Where am I?" Pox then let out, shirking together like a mouse.

"You're in the bathroom." Crypto replied. "I think you slipped."

Pox stared at the warrior clone for a moment, his confused expression showing his disorientation. Crypto was supporting his back and was clearly a bit worried.

Pox struggled to comprehend were he was and what had happened. It was like there was a gap in his mind. It felt like he'd been someplace else in the meantime he was unconscious. But he had no idea where, or _why.  
_He then realized something that mattered above all else. He was still naked.

"_Don't touch me, you dolt!_" he suddenly barked at Crypto. "And get out! I'm _**fine!**_"

"Are you sure?" Crypto asked. " 'Cause you were-…"

"**Shut up and piss off!**"

"Alright, alright! Yeez!"

The warrior clone then got up and hastily left his skyclad mentor to himself.

A few minutes later, Pox appeared dry and neatly dressed at the kitchen table, where Crypto already sat, his legs propped up on the table and a steaming mug of coffee at his lips.  
Pox had soon also poured himself some coffee and crankily sat down opposite the warrior clone.  
He wasn't at all pleased with the fact Crypto had seen him naked, even though there wasn't anything to see.

Crypto eyed him for a moment before asking,

"So are you okay…? What happened?"

"I told you, I'm fine." Pox replied. "I just… fell. I got some sort of cramp or something, I don't know…"

"No offense, but you're actin' kinda skittish today." Crypto told him. "You're worse than that time I let loose those lobsters around the Mothership."

"I thought I told you never to mention that nightmarish prank again!" Pox barked at him. "And I don't know what's going on today, I just feel terrible for some reason. I'd prefer we discuss something else."

"Orthopox is blue and there's nothin' I can do…"

"Oh, shut up, Crypto. I want you to go down to the US today. I've spotted a new military structure within a remote base there and I want you to check it out."

"What's so special about it?"

"Nothing in particular, which is why it raised my suspicion." Pox told him. "It might be a cover for some dastardly Majestic project…"

"Yeez, Pox, don't be so freakin' paranoid…!" Crypto let out. "For the past few weeks, the Americans haven't been able to _fart_ without you thinkin' it was a secret Majestic weapon…!"

"We're dealing with Silhouette here, Crypto…! She knows we now know she still lives, and we're basically racing to be the first to destroy the other!"

"_But she's nuts!_ If she's cookin' something up, it'll be so messed up we'll never see it comin'!"

"That's exactly what she wants us to think." Pox said. "She expects us to expect the unexpected, thus anything she sets up will be mundane, so we don't expect it to belong to her."

"You lost me." Crypto puffed while leaning on an elbow.

"She's clever and crazy enough to act stupid. Some have their greatest ideas during a delirium, you know."

"I guess that's why you're a genius."

"Whatever. I want you to go down there today. It's the only thing we have to go by right now…"

"Fine." Crypto huffed. "I gotta pick somethin' up on the way there, though. I readied a couple of crates of some Dutch local drink last night, but I was too drunk to load 'em in the saucer's hull."

"Surely you can't be serious..." Pox groaned.

"I am. And don't call me Shirley."

"Well, fine." Pox sighed exasparatedly. "But remember, Crypto. Don't drink and destroy."

"What are you, my mother? I'm not a larva, Pox. I'm old enough to make my own mistakes. I mean, decisions."

* * *

So after Crypto had recovered his supply of West-Friese Kruidenbitter, he was off to the United States to check out the base that had recently appeared there.

It soon turned out Pox's suspicion was unfounded, as it housed nothing more than a mundane military office and small training facility.  
After painstakingly checking every single little room of every single building, Pox finally seemed moderately reassured and allowed Crypto to return to his saucer to go back home to the Mothership.

Normally, while Crypto was on his way back, Pox would round up his own tasks in his labs and there would usually be a telepathic silence, but now, Crypto recalled a joke he wanted to share with his mentor.

'Hey Poxy-o… How do you get twenty Dutchmen in a small car?'

Pox had been in a fairly alright mood just a moment ago, yet oddly, Crypto got no response. The other end of the telepathic line remained silent.

'Pox…?' Crypto uneasily let out.

He couldn't help already feeling anxious. Pox would _always_ respond to him. Either he went along with a joke, or would tell the warrior clone in unnecessary length and volume how much he was not in the mood for his frivolity.  
With still not a single word from his mentor, Crypto urged the Scout Ship on to full speed, hurrying back to the Mothership.

Once there, he didn't even bother to reach the ship's usual landing spot. He just planted it down any old where and practically fell out of the saucer, stumbling over his own feet in his rush for the staircase in the elevator hall.

Crypto flew down the stairs, and only came to a halt when he reached the labs, panting as his eyes rapidly scanned around for Pox.  
He finally spotted him, barely visible in a dark, distant corner of the labs, apparently trying to hide or seek cover.

"Pox!" Crypto let out, and quickly headed over to him. "What the hell are you doin' there?! Why didn't you answer me?"

Pox wildly looked up at him, his eyes wide and his arms shaking as he held them tightly across his pulled up legs.  
His terrified expression startled the warrior clone for a second.

"They've taken me, Crypto…!" Pox let out. "There was nothing I could do! I don't know how they did it, but they have me!"

"What…?! Pox, relax, just get up from there…"

"No! You can't touch me! I won't let anyone touch me anymore!" Pox rambled on, shirking together at the sight of Crypto's extended hand. "I told her everything…! I had to! But she still did it! She promised she wouldn't if I told her everything, but she lied!"

"Pox, snap out of it, will ya, you're scarin' me!"

"What's happening to me, Crypto…?" Pox whispered, his shoulders shaking as he now stared blankly at the warrior clone in front of him.

"You're finally goin' mental on me, that's what!" Crypto told him. "Now get up from there!"

Crypto then grabbed Pox's left wrist and pulled his psychotic mentor up.

"And _snap out of it!_" he concluded with a slap across Pox's face.

"_Ow!_" came the oddly pitched, initial response.

The warrior clone carefully eyed his Commander for the result of his improvised therapy.  
And it didn't take long for Pox, once he'd recovered, to turn an angry eye to the younger Furon.

"Why, you _impudent little pustule!_" he barked.

And before Crypto knew it, he was on his way, head first across the lab air and soon crashed against the cloning machine's synthetic maternal liquid vat, shattering its glass and covering a PK-shellshocked Crypto and the lab floor in a gross pink goo.

"_If you ever have the nerve to do that again I'll rip your package clean off your torso!_" Pox yelled at him from the other side of the labs. "Now clean up that mess, you hamfisted mutation!"

With that, he marched off.  
As Crypto lay awkwardly sprawled amidst the cloning slime, he couldn't help a grin.  
Looks like Poxy's back to his old self again for now.

* * *

**So how **_**do**_** you get twenty Dutchmen in a small car…?  
****Easy. Just throw in a penny.**

**And d'ya know how the North Sea was formed?  
****A Dutchman **_**lost**_** a penny. (And cried and cried and cried.)**


	3. Furon Calling

A few weeks passed on the Mothership.

Pox continued to suffer from his odd psychological troubles. He seemed fine whenever he was busy or when Crypto was around, but whenever he was alone, when his mind was allowed to quiet down, he began to feel an unexplainable fear and anxiety. He felt trapped, threatened by a non-existent danger.  
He avoided sleep, as he had dreadful, graphically vivid nightmares about Silhouette whenever he slept. Things evolved to a point where Pox became almost scared to be alone, as the madness seemed unavoidable then.

It was an ordinary enough Wednesday evening when Pox sat in the living quarters, curled up on the couch and trying to keep his focus on the book on human discoveries of the paranormal he was reading.

Crypto came strolling in, wearing his warrior uniform and polishing his Disintegrator Ray with a cloth he'd just retrieved from the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Pox asked, looking up from his book.

"Oh, just goin' out for a little recreational rampagin'…" Crypto replied, inspecting the lustre of his gun.

"Oh, well… I-I…" Pox began. "Could you maybe stay home tonight…?"

"Why?"

"Well, eh… There's a documentary on photons and their relation to quantum mechanics airing on… television tonight… I thought it might be… enlightening…?"

Crypto gave him a blank look in reply.

"Alright, fine." Pox huffed. "I just want you to stay home, alright? Strange things seem to happen whenever I'm alone. Apparently I need you to distract and annoy me in order to stay sane."

"Oh, you don't need _**me**_ to stay sane, Pox…" Crypto told him. "You went bonkers over two millennia ago."

"Shut up. Are you staying or not…?"

"Fine, whatever, I'll stay…" Crypto growled. "Whatever makes you happy, you crank. I ain't watchin' no documentary, though."

So Crypto, a little disappointed, put away his gun again and got changed in some couch-surfin' threads. He had then crashed on the sofa next to Pox and flipped on the tv, looking around for anything worth watching.  
As the warrior clone scanned through the channels, Pox blankly stared at the tv screen as his elbow leaned on a couch armrest, and his head in his palm.

Having trouble finding anything watchable, Crypto started,

"So tell me what the hell is goin' on with you lately. Is it like some sort of posttraumatic thing because of Silhouette or somethin'?"

"I wish I knew." Pox replied. "But frankly, I have no idea what's going on. A stress disorder might be the closest bet, but I experience hallucinations and feelings of unexplained fear only when my mind is unoccupied. If I were truly suffering from any common psychiatric disorder, I should likely be experiencing it all day long."

"Hallucinations?" Crypto asked. "What kind of hallucinations?"

"Several. Brief visions of humans, physical pains and… well… hands."

"Hands?" Crypto repeated.

"Yes. Invisible hands, touching me, in the most unsettling places. It's… kind of uncomfortable to talk about…"

"Ya know, Pox, maybe you just need a break. How about I find and abduct you a nice human chica sometime soon…? I think I've already seen a nice one for you down in the Netherlands. I'll take her to you and then go down to Earth for a couple o' days myself so you can 'question' and 'examine' her for as long as you want…"

"I don't know…" Pox sighed. "I have other priorities… And I think I've had my fill of human females for a while, thanks to Silhouette…"

"I'm tellin' ya, Pox, I think I know the perfect chick for you…!" Crypto exclaimed. "She's sorta spookish but she has this kind of rural charm about her, and she lives right next to an Arkvoodle idol…!"

"Perhaps later, Crypto… I'm not in the mood. And did you just fart?"

"Maybe. So if you're not interested in 'er, mind if I have a roll in the hay with her?"

"Oh, I'm interested in her." Pox told him. "Just not right now. So keep your randy little phylangeopods off her, if you know what's good for you and your package. I don't want you to taint her before I've seen her."

"Fine. Sheesh."

Both Furons were then startled by a beeping sound that presented itself throughout the Mothership, accompanied by a small icon blinking in a corner of the television screen.

"What the hell is that?" Crypto asked, looking at his mentor a little worried.

"The lab's computers are alerting us of something urgent." Pox replied. "Could be a call from the Homeworld or some other important message."

"Okay, so what do we do…?"

"We should head down to the labs right away."

So a few minutes later, both Furons were in Pox's research lab. As Pox sat down behind the main computer, he pulled up the communicator program that had triggered the warning signals.

He observed the data, and an odd frown appeared on his face.

"So what is it?" Crypto asked, standing behind him and peering over his shoulder.

"It's a distress signal, coming from Earth, somewhere in the Nevada desert…" Pox told him. "And it's unmistakably Furon…"

"Furon…?"

"Yes. It's very rudimentary but it definately bears a signature of Furon-made technology. All it is composed of, however, is an emergency distress signal and a call for help."

"H-how is that possible?" Crypto asked, a little confused. "We're the only Furons here."

"It may be a Furon ship gone adrift and having crashed on Earth. Whatever the case, since we're the only Furons within a four lightyear radius, we are obligated by Naval Code to help."

"But what if it's a trap or somethin'…?"

"Even the communicator verifies it as genuinely Furon, Crypto." Pox said. "No human can engineer this kind of signal. We should waste no time, we should get to the sender of this signal before the humans do. Let's get changed."

Pox then got up from his seat.

"W-wait, you're coming too?" Crypto asked.

"Of course. I haven't seen any other Furon face than yours for over fifteen years. I'm not going to miss this opportunity…"

* * *

Pox and Crypto then headed for the hangar, and while Pox had put on his Commander robes, Crypto traded his clothes for his uniform once again. For safety, he also picked up his Disintegrator Ray, and when all was set, both Furons entered the Scout Ship.

They left the Mothership and zoomed over to Earth, entering the atmosphere high above Nevada. Crypto followed a mark on his radar where the signal's source had to be, and once the ship had reached the desert, both Furons squinted through the Scout Ship's purple dome glass, trying to discern anything unsual from the rocks and sand.  
Nothing special could be seen. Crypto had flown over the mark's precise location several times, but all that could be seen were large boulders.

"Let's land the saucer, Crypto." Pox told him. "Perhaps we'll discover more on foot."

"Got it."

Crypto then picked a boulder-free spot nearby and landed the ship, and both Furons were lowered to the warm reddish sand by the Abducto Beam, greeted by the Nevada autumn evening sun.  
The duo headed for a group of large boulders, in the midst of which the source of the signal had to be located.

As Pox and Crypto stepped up to a small pile of rocks, they finally spotted a small beeping device half buried underneath it.  
They looked it over for a while, and Crypto glanced at Pox in confusion.

"That's it?" he growled. "This is the emergency? Looks more like some lame prank to me."

"It doesn't make sense." Pox mumbled. "This shouldn't be here."

Both Furons were then startled by loud roaring noises coming from all around them.  
The large boulders littering the site were falling apart, revealing them to be hollow shells.

Hollow shells containing Majestic agents. Lots and lots of Majestic agents.

Pox and Crypto froze on the spot as the boulders crumbled one after another, each containing at least three agents and some even equipment of various sorts. The rubble from the faux rocks now also cut them off from the Scout Ship.  
But as the last rock shell broke apart, the worst thing of all was revealed.

From its inner shadows, slowly, none other than Silhouette emerged.  
She had a smug, wicked grin on her face, which only grew as she saw Pox cringe at the sight of her.

"Well, what do you know…" she grinned, crossing her arms. "Small world…!"

Pox and Crypto could only stare at her in disbelief as the Majestic agents held their aim from a distance, covered by the rock debris.  
Silhouette, however, was not afraid to slowly, casually pad towards the two Furons.

"I knew you two would fall for the old 'distress signal'-trap…" she gloated. "Then again, we prepared it well…"

"What is this…?!" Pox barked, pointing towards the little device in the sand. "How is this possible?!"

"I'm _so_ glad you asked, Orthopox." Silhouette cooed. "I have managed to get my hands on a very good source of Furon information. You see, we haven't been sitting on our asses since your escape. Thanks to my source, I've come to know some very… intimate details about you, Orthopox…"

Pox and Crypto remained silent as she continued,

"Also, although not voluntarily, he's supplied me with advanced technology, beyond that which we've been able to create before. Technology I will use to destroy you in a few moments' time…"

"And what _is_ this source…?" Pox asked angrily.

"I think you'll find him quite familiar." Silhouette told him. "Allow me to introduce him."

And she stepped aside to reveal…


	4. Silhouette's Sinister Subjugated Secret

Silhouette took a step aside, making way for someone slowly appearing from the shadows of the hollow boulder behind her.

It was a short, skinny figure, and he moved cautiously, slowly stepping into the evening light. He kept his gaze down, and as the sunlight finally touched his grey skin and the ragged, oversized green t-shirt and jeans he wore, the two Furons that stood several yards away could not believe their eyes.

For what they saw was, well… Pox.

He seemed around the same age as Orthopox-14, yet he looked dreadful. The skin on his arms was bruised a vague purplish blue all over, he was nothing but skin and bones, and he looked dead tired. Both Pox-14 and Crypto could sense that all of his spirit within had died, undoubtedly having been beaten out. It seemed as if Silhouette had stolen the very light from his eyes.  
He went to stand next to Silhouette, not daring to look at his un-captive counterpart.

"Meet Orthopox-15." Silhouette chirped. "Our greatest achievement yet."

Orthopox-14 couldn't utter a word. He could only stare at his captive clone in shock and horror.

"Remember that blood we took from you, Orthopox?" Silhouette began. "It proved most valuable. My scientists managed to extract, research and manipulate your DNA well enough to create a fully functioning clone. We even pinpointed which genes determine your mental powers. As a result, we were able to disable your psychokinesis."

Crypto looked from Pox-15 back to 14, and then 15 again, hardly understanding what was going on.

"So he's been our source." Silhouette continued. "We forced him to build that little transmitter to lure you here. We've… _persuaded_ him to tell us all he knows of us and everything we wanted to know about you. He's built various weapons for us, and improved our existing equipment. And mostly, he has just been my own personal little plaything… Isn't that right, Poxy?"

She then looked down at Orthopox-15 at her heel, and he seemed to cringe for a moment.  
Silhouette was clearly waiting for a response, but her captive remained silent.  
Earning him a swat to the back of his head.

"I said, _isn't that right?_" Silhouette spat at him.

"Yes, mistress…" Pox-15 finally said quietly.

"Good boy."

To a horrified Orthopox-14, everything suddenly made sense.  
The nightmares, the visions, the disturbing physical sensations… They hadn't been hallucinations at all. It had been a mental link with his captured clone.

"In these past few months, thanks to this little munchkin and the spooky experiments I put him through, I've found out some very interesting things about you, Orthopox…" the insane black-haired woman murmured to Pox-14. "One thing I found praticularly interesting is your pathological fear of crustaceans."

Crypto saw both Poxes jolt to the mention of that last word.

"That knowledge proved very useful while interrogating you." Silhouette went on. "But also, provided heaps of fun. I got my men to procure some prime specimens and enjoyed myself for hours, holding you down while letting a nice, big sea crab crawl over your naked body and waving a live and squirming giant isopod in your face until you cried like a teensy weensy Furon larva."

"You fiend!" Pox-14 exclaimed as Silhouette let out an insane laugh.

"What's wrong, Poxy?" she pouted. "Did those big, bad, crabby Blisk do something to you back in the Martian War…? Of course, your little clone brother here soon had enough of Majestic's hospitality and tried to escape. Remind me, Furon…" she then told Pox-15. "How many escape attempts did you make in the past two months…?"

Pox-15 lowered his head even further than it already was and softly replied,

"Three, mistress…"

"And how many were even remotely successful?"

"None, mistress."

"That's right… And you rued every single one of them more than the last."

Silhouette knelt next to her pet, to his eyelevel. She then roughly grabbed Pox-15's shoulders and forced a provocative kiss on his lips, demonstrating her control over him.  
Pox-14 and Crypto stared at the scene in shock, yet Pox-15 didn't even seem to resist. He just stood almost stoically still as Silhouette practically devoured him.  
Yet she _wanted_ him to resist to add to her little display, so she slipped a hand underneath his shirt and moved up his back, only to dig her nails into his skin.  
Finally, he fruitlessly tried to break away and a few muffled noises of pain came from him, just audible enough to reach the two Furons standing horror-stricken a few yards away.

Pox-14 couldn't help feeling physically ill and turned his gaze away. He knew all to well how it felt what Silhouette was doing.  
Crypto only felt rage, and threateningly whipped out his Disintegrator Ray. He did not fire it, though, as they were still surrounded, outnumbered, and under aim.

Satisfied, Silhouette abruptly broke her violent kiss and theatrically licked her lips for a moment as she shoved a gasping Orthopox-15 away.  
She then pouted towards the two disgusted Furons glaring at her.

"What's the matter, boys…?" she asked. "Don't be such hypocrits… You Furons are a very sexual race, right? And here you are, two boys, all alone on that big old Mothership… I'll bet there are times you just can't keep your little phylangeopods off eachother…"

"Hey. That only happened once." Crypto objected. "Back when I got my package Pox insisted on havin' **'**the talk**'**. He got me all hot, so yeah, I kissed him. Totally not my fault."

"Shut _**up**_, Crypto!" Pox-14 hissed.

"Yeah, I remember that." Silhouette said. "I thought it was cute. Specially the part where Pox broke your spine."

"How the hell would you know that?!" Crypto let out.

"Oh, we had a little spy bug planted in your Mothership almost a year ago." Silhouette shrugged. "Was a bit of a failure, though. The batteries only lasted for two weeks or so."

"You're bluffing, you wench!" Pox-14 barked. "I would have detected and destroyed any foreign technology!"

"Oh, really…?" Silhouette mused, beginning a slow pace towards the two Furons. "You're so confident of your capabilities, Orthopox… Yet it takes surprisingly little to break your will. After only a day or so I got your little clonebrother over there to start improving my agents' weaponry."

"Lies, you hag! I would never work for you!"

But Pox-14 quieted down and backed away when Silhouette reached him and knelt next to him, unfazed by Crypto threateningly pointing his Disintegrator Ray at her.

"That's what your little clone said." she told Pox. "But wanna know what I did to make you obey…?"

She then grabbed 14's left upper arm and yanked him close, and whispered something to him. Crypto witnessed Pox's eyes grow wide and all the color draining from his face as he listened.

"Every night. Sometimes twice." Silhouette concluded as she let Pox go again. "And quite frankly whenever I felt like it."

She then smugly stood back up.

"With that little grey anklebiter heeding my every command, I now have all I need to achieve global domination." she stated. "Once we've perfected the cloning process, I'll clone myself and rule the world forever. The only thing left in my way, are you two."

"Yeah?" Crypto huffed. "Why does every freakin' human want to rule this planet so badly? Hate to break it to ya, toots, but you monkeys are the laughing stock of the galaxy."

"Well, it was either that or become an underwear model." Silhouette shrugged. "They do tell me I've got potential."

She then promptly unzipped and opened her tight-fitting black outfit, showing off her pale, slender abdomen topped by a not-so-shabby chest fitted with a lacy black bra. Four Furon eyes subsequently locked on and widened to the sight and Crypto fell over like a plank.

Silhouette seized the opportunity and –after rapidly making herself decent again- grabbed Orthopox-14, pinning him with his back to her, her arm around his neck and her gun to his head. He immediately freaked out and pointlessly squirmed in her iron grip as Crypto finally recovered and got back up, quickly picking up his gun while Silhouette cackled a laugh.

"Dammit, that was a low blow, hot stuff!" the warrior clone exclaimed, baring his teeth. "No offense, but I'm gonna have to rip ya a new one for that…!"

"Not so fast, Crypto." Silhouette spoke, tightening her hold on Pox's neck. "There's more where that came from. _Boys…_" she then cooed at her agents. "Bring me our lastest secret weapon, would you…? And who do I have to shoot to get a cup of coffee?"

"Enough talk, Silhouette!" Crypto yelled at her, anxiously aiming his Disintegrator Ray. "I don't care about your boobs-…I-I mean, _weapon_!"

"I think you will. It's the same gun my agents used when they shot little Crypto-136, blowing his guts all over the floor. Only better."

Silhouette sinisterly grinned as Crypto's countenance clearly changed. She'd hit the right nerve, all right.

"Unlike what the files say, it was I who personally sliced 136's little throat." she continued. "And there was the funniest thing about him… I thought he smelled like Irish whiskey."

"Don't listen to her, Crypto…!" Pox-14 squeaked through Silhouette's constricting grip, which subsequently only tightened to shut him up.

"I supervised the entire dissection." Silhouette went on. "Or should I say, _vivi_section…? I could look right into 136's cut-open chest, and his exposed heart. I could actually see it beating, and my stars, was it racing… I wanted 136 to squeal, squeal like a pig! And he did, too."

Silhouette let out a sinister laugh as Crypto furiously stared at her with bared teeth, clearly emotional and struggling to keep himself from pulling his gun's trigger.

"As we cloned Orthopox-15, I watched him develop in the cloning tube, day by day, from a tiny Furon larva to his adult self, and I couldn't wait until the day _he_ would be next. Orthopox-13 may have escaped, but soon I'll have _three_ Furons to slice and dice. **Fifteen.** " Silhouette then barked at Pox-15. "Get over here."

The captive Furon, whom had been silently standing a few yards away after getting back up from where Silhouette had left him, quietly and nervously came shuffling over and uneasily stopped near Silhouette.  
A Majestic agent then also came over, carrying a large, futuristic looking gun.

"Ah." Silhouette let out as the agent offered her the weapon. "Ladies and G-Men, I present our latest weapon, augmented by none other than Orthopox-15. Codenamed Pandora's Lunchbox. -Don't ask…- It's a prototype, though. My men have complained it isn't shiny enough. Give it to the prisoner, agent."

The Majestic agent then shoved the large gun in a startled Pox-15's hands and marched off again.

"Now, boys…" the insane woman began. "We'll play a little game. This weapon has been experiencing glitches since day one. It's still a little fragile and due to some conductive issues concerning the weapon's plasma cell or whatever, it tends to jam. The rules of this little Russian Roulette we're about to play are as follows. Fifteen, you will take aim at Crypto. You pull the trigger. If the gun fires, Crypto dies and you live. If the gun does not fire and Crypto lives, I shoot you. If the gun fires and Crypto somehow survives, I shoot Orthopox-14."

"What?!" Pox-14 exclaimed.

"How about these rules, dollface?" Crypto began as he threateningly aimed his Disintegrator Ray at her. "You just shut the hell up while I blow your face off!"

"Careful, Crypto." Silhouette told him as she held one of Orthopox-14's arms and twisted it tightly behind his back until he groaned and squirmed in protest. "Or I'll snap this little meat shield's neck, got it?"

Pox-15 still stood with the large gun in his shaking hands, looking down at it with wide eyes.  
He then glanced up at Crypto, whom uncertainly looked back and slightly lowered his weapon.

"Now shoot him, munchkin!" Silhouette barked at her pet.

Fifteen didn't move, his trembling only getting worse as he stared at the gun in his hands and wondered what the rules would say if he shot himself.

"**Do it now, dammit!**" Silhouette yelled at him. "Or I'll blow his brains out myself!"

'Just shoot me, Pox.' Crypto then told him telepathically. 'I'll think of somethin', trust me.'

Pox-15 then looked up at him, and carefully aimed the gun.

'I'm so sorry, Crypto…' he then replied, and tightly closed his eyes as he pulled the trigger.

The gun made a threatening hum as if it was charging, yet nothing seemed to come out and it began vibrating violently. Something was obviously not working the way it should as the weapon's glass powercell began glowing a bright green. It was jamming, and Pox-15 gasped and dropped it as it suddenly became scorchingly hot and burned his hands.  
The gun's glass shattered at it hit the ground, rendering it useless.

"_**You idiot!"**_ Silhouette exclaimed furiously, and threw Orthopox-14 aside as she lunged at 15.

Before poor Pox-15 knew what was happening, Silhouette whipped the end of her gun to the side of his head and he collapsed limply to the desert floor.  
Meanwhile, Pox-14 had hurried back to Crypto and sought cover behind him as the warrior clone got ready to fire.

"Fine!" Silhouette let out as she whipped out another gun, now dual-wielding. "If that's the way you boys want to play, _**give it to me, baby!"**_


	5. Ionized

Pandemonium then ensued, with everyone present except for the unconscious 15 and unarmed Orthopox-14 clones opening fire. Pox-14, however, was al least as deadly as any, using his psychokinesis.  
Crypto and Pox went all-out battling the humans, doing well in vaporizing and psychokinetically crushing the Majestic agents that surrounded them. However, Silhouette had come very well prepared, evading their attacks with various cartwheels, somersaults and other athletic feats, while apparently also having a shield (undoubtedly engineered by her captive toy Furon) protecting her body.

Rocks, cacti, humans, hot slugs and Majestic equipment whizzed through the dry desert air, and Pox repeatedly failed in trying to crush Silhouette underneath whatever large boulder was within his reach.

With the combination of a virtually continuous stream of Disintegrator blasts and an indepletable source of mental fury and might, it didn't take very long before but a handful of Majestic agents was left.  
However, Crypto was running low on ammo, while not even a single strand of Silhouette's victory roll hairdo was out of place. This called for a guerrilla attack.

Saving his last few hot molten slugs and a single Ion Detonator, Crypto set in a warcry and made a charge for Silhouette.  
She seemed surprised and paused her fire as the Furon warrior came straight for her, his sharp teeth bared as he roared like a mad beast.

Crypto rapidly closed in and got ready to pounce on her, yet just as he reached her, Silhouette abruptly ended his voracious move by kicking him right in the groin.

Pox watched it all happen and shut one eye tightly, shirking up his shoulders and making an 'ouch' face in pity.  
The warrior clone let out a startled and odd groan, going a little cross-eyed before falling to the floor, doubled over.

With Crypto incapacitated, Silhouette turned her attention to the remaining Furon standing vulnerably alone a few yards away. The distraction had given the remaining Majestic agents a chance to recompose themselves and they now kept Pox firmly under their aim again.  
A strange quiet then fell over the site and Pox-14 looked around a little unsure. Silhouette set in a slow, menacing pace towards him, and he slowly backed up, still being scared witless by the insane human.

"Checkmate, Orthopox…" Silhouette then whispered as she threateningly stepped through the sand. "And a pity, really. I was hoping for a bigger challenge, but instead I won as usual; through one of the many weaknesses of men. Good thing you are both still alive, though. Now I'll have three captive Furons to play around with."

Silhouette herded the still nervously backing up Pox right into the arms of her remaining agents.

"Just think of all the things I could do to you…" she sighed as she fantasized. "Just think of all the things I could make you do to eachother. I think I'll clone you again after I kill you, Orthopox. I really enjoy making you beg for mercy. Seize him, men!"

But just as the Majestic agents intended to grab Pox-14, a barrage of blue energy blasts came from behind them, vaporizing them all.  
As they crumbled to dust and were scattered in the wind, Pox-15 was revealed, standing there, holding a Majestic weapon he had picked up from a killed human.

"Why, you _**insolent piece of-AAGH!"**_ Silhouette furiously began, but was then hit by another blue blast from the gun as Fifteen now shot at her.

She immediately evaded all subsequent blasts as she engaged in a firefight with her alien prisoner.  
Pox-14 watched it all in confusion and was startled when his left upper arm was suddenly grabbed.

"C'mon, Pox!" Crypto said urgently as he pulled Pox-14 away from the fight and in the direction of the Scout Ship. "Let's head for the saucer while she's distracted and fry her ass with the Death Ray!"

"No…!" Pox-14 objected. "We can't leave me behind…! I must ask me what they've done to me and how much I've told them…!"

"What…?!" Crypto let out in confusion.

Meanwhile, the fight between Fifteen and Silhouette went on a stone's throw away, and Fifteen was not doing very well. He wasn't very fast and had taken a few hits, but disaster really struck when his gun's ammo finally ran out and all it did was click.

"_Ha!" _Silhouette let out triumphantly. "I'll make you pay for this later, you little-…"

"**POX**!" Pox-15 heard Crypto shout his name, and just as he turned his view, a gun was then psychokinetically thrown into his hands.

Fifteen looked down at the large, heavy weapon. It was an Ion Detonator.  
He got a hold of it properly and then looked up at Silhouette standing right in front of him.

"You wouldn't dare." she hissed at him.

Fifteen's hands shook as a finger got a hold of the trigger, his eyes never breaking contact with Silhouette's.

"You know you can't do it, munchkin." Silhouette told him. "Now be a good boy and give me the big shiny gun."

Pox-14 and Crypto tensely watched from a while away, and finally heard Fifteen say,

"Goodbye, _mistress."_

He then lobbed a Detonator and immediately triggered it, causing a blast that enveloped both Silhouette and himself.  
The loud explosion caused a cloud of kicked up sand and dust that obscured all view for a moment, and when things eventually began to settle again, the two remaining Furons came to realize both Fifteen and Silhouette were gone.

Pox-14 and Crypto stared in disbelief at the small, empty crater the explosion left, and the desert was silent for a while.

"He sacrificed himself…" Pox eventually said quietly.

"Yeah…" Crypto let out. "Poor bastard."

The warrior clone then glanced sideways at his mentor.

"I, uh… I'm sorry for what happened to you, Pox…"

"It's alright." Pox sighed. "Let's just destroy the remainder of Majestic's equipment here and go back home to the Mothership…"


	6. No Matter How Bad It Seems

So after all of the remaining human junk on the desert site had been Quantum Deconstructed, Pox and Crypto had made their way back to the Mothership.  
Silhouette had finally been defeated, and Pox had basically gotten his revenge, yet it was clear to Crypto his mentor was not really feeling that much better.  
After both Furons got off the saucer in the hangar, Pox had quietly wandered off and Crypto later found him sitting on a beanbag in a corner of his labs, reading.  
Yet as he observed him, Crypto could sense Pox was a bit down and not actually paying attention to his book.

The younger Furon approached him and sat down next to him.

"You alright, Pox…?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm fine…" Pox replied, looking up from his book. "Can't say this was how I pictured my vengeance to be, though. But at least it's over."

"Yeah… But shouldn't we, ya know, clear out the rest of the Majestic? 'Cause they were apparently still around."

"Without Silhouette, Majestic will be nothing more than a disorganized bunch of monkeys in cheap black suits, Crypto. I want to get back to our mission and forget about this whole ordeal as fast as Furonly possible."

"Yeah, I guess you're right…" Crypto replied. "So what d'ya have in mind for our next DNA-rich invasion site…?"

"Actually, our next invasion site will be of a recreational nature…" Pox told him. "Why don't you tell me more about that human girl in the Netherlands you mentioned…?"

* * *

Yet as the two Furons got to discussing their leisurely trip to Holland…  
Somewhere down on Earth, in a sinster, dimly lit lab, encased in a fluid-filled tube, a dark haired young woman opened her eyes…

**THE END  
****(?)**

* * *

_Dun-dun-duuun! Yes! There's already another sequel in the works. Cause I just can't stop. Silhouette is insane, and I respect that. Please leave a review, please do. No matter how brief. No matter whether ya liked it or not. Please…? In any case, thanks for reading. :D_


End file.
